1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power connection device which includes, on the one hand, a female part formed around a multiclip with a lyre-shaped profile contained within and secured by an insulating support, which assembly is fixed inside a panel and is accessible from only one side, and on the other hand, a male part to be plugged into this female part through the accessible side, which male part is composed of a single thick plate.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, when it is desirable to achieve a power connection, a certain number of precautions must be taken. Thus, it is essential to reduce any contact resistance as much as possible. For this reason, the contact pieces are usually bolted to one another. This technique is reliable but not very practical, especially when the available space and/or volume remaining in an electronic panel makes access difficult, and particularly when the connection is accessible from only one side, which necessitates a long and difficult disassembly in the event of a failure. This drawback is further accentuated when, as is more and more often the case, redundant systems are used, in which case the power supply to the panel must generally be cut off so that the faulty module may be removed and replaced by a working module, thus eliminating the advantage of full utilization of the redundancy in a system.
One solution for avoiding this drawback consists of using, in place of bolted connections traditional elastic-type female connections, for example those with lyre-shaped profiles, into which male connectors are plugged. In order to allow the power transfer, particularly with high-intensity currents, given the thinness of these connectors, it is provided for a plurality of female connections of this type to be connected in parallel for the proper distribution of these currents, and it is not surprising in this case to find as many as fifty of these parallel connections. However, this solution has real drawbacks because it is almost impossible to obtain a very low contact resistance in each elementary female connection, given the disparities due to manufacturing tolerances as well as to the differences in their elasticity, a fact which implies a non-negligible resultant of the different elementary contact resistances.
Another solution consists of using a connection strip which is wide enough to support a high intensity and rigid enough to reduce the contact resistance. However, experience has shown that the contact cannot be made in such a way as to be distributed across the entire width of this strip, so this has the drawback of significantly increasing the contact resistance, which is contrary to the desired objective. Moreover, because of the width and the rigidity of the strip, if it is desirable to further reduce the contact resistance by increasing the clamping action, the insertion force necessary for plugging in the male piece becomes truly excessive.